Meg Rosoff on five of the best literary dogs

Meg Rosoff picks some of her favourite literary dogs.

An Airedale, as featured in James Thurber's 'The Dog that Bit People'Photo: Rex Feature

By Meg Rosoff

4:00PM BST 09 Sep 2013

One of literature’s most poignant relationships has to be that between Odysseus and his faithful Argos. Having waited 20 years for his master to return, the once noble hound drops his ears, wags his tail and dies without acknowledgement from his master in disguise. I challenge any reader of The Odyssey(8th century BC) to remain dry-eyed at their reunion.

James Thurber, perhaps America’s greatest humorist, had a passion for dogs. Thurber’s Dogs (1955), a collection of essays, contains a lifetime of affectionate observation. And having once owned an Airedale myself, The Dog That Bit People never fails to induce helpless hilarity.

Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy, is a beagle of myriad incarnations, all delightful. I particularly admire Snoopy’s letter to his would-be publisher: “Regarding the rejection slip you sent me, there might have been a misunderstanding. What I wanted was for you to publish my story and send me $50,000.” Perfect.

In Paul Auster’s Timbuktu (1999), a mongrel, Mr Bones (companion to a dying poet-tramp), dreams of accompanying his master to heaven – aka Timbuktu. The “pure ontological terror” he experiences in anticipation of his master’s death will resonate with any dog who has ever owned a human.

Jerome K Jerome’s Montmorency is, by a long way, my favourite character in Three Men in a Boat(1899). “He put his leg into the jam, worried the teaspoons, pretended the lemons were rats, and got into the hamper and killed three of them.” For me, a perfectly correct attitude towards boating.